Adobe beats analysts’ estimate for revenue and earnings per share in the fourth quarter

The
American multinational computer software company, Adobe, announced its
performance results for the fourth quarter on Thursday. Having beaten the
analysts’ forecast for revenue, the stock was reported trading 2.7% higher
later on Thursday.

The
company reported expanding the customer base for its core digital media
business. Subscriptions for flagship Creative Cloud suite, in particular, were
highlighted to have risen sharply.

Adobe
Aims At Marking Its Dominance In Design Related Software

While
the cloud market continues to be monopolized by the software giants like
Microsoft and Salesforce, with the likes of Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe is
busy marking its dominance in the market of design-related software.

Based
on Refinitiv’s data, analysts had forecast $2.05 billion in revenue for Adobe’s
digital media unit in the fourth quarter. The earnings report, however, highlighted
the software company to have generated $2.08 billion in revenue instead, from
the business segment. In terms of year over year growth in revenue, Adobe has
posted a 22% improvement in revenue from the digital media unit as compared to
the same quarter last year.

Adobe
highlighted its earnings per share (EPS) in the fourth quarter at $1.74. In
2018’s Q4, Adobe’s EPS was reported much lower at $1.37 per share. The company’s
net income of $851.9 million as noted in the Q4 earnings report, is significantly
higher than $678.2 million that was printed last year.

The
company recorded an even better EPS of $2.29 per share (excluding items).
Driven from Refinitiv’s data, analysts’ estimate for earnings per share was
capped at $2.26 per share (excluding items).

Adobe
Beats Experts’ Forecast For Total Quarterly Revenue In The Fourth Quarter

The
total quarterly revenue for the company came out to be $2.99 billion. Experts
had anticipated the revenue in the fourth quarter to be capped at $2.97 billion
for Adobe. The American multinational software company recorded a 21% growth in
revenue as compared to the figure for last year.

2019
has been the year for Adobe in the stock market. Having opened the year at
around $224, the company has printed a year-to-date high of $320 on Friday. In
the after-hours trading on Friday, the stock was reported to be settling around
the year-to-date high. Share prices for Adobe have remained above the opening
level in 2019 so far. The
software company currently has a market cap of $153.91 billion with a price
to earnings ratio of 56.45.

Following
the Q4 report, Adobe forecasted the revenue for 2020’s first quarter at $3.04
billion that remained shy of the Wall Street estimate of $3.09 billion. The
company cited intense competition in the cloud market to be the reason for the dovish
estimate.